Payments & Notices

Applications go out late or underpriced

The date slips because the build-up starts too late, and the certification pays for it.

Notices land and nobody checks them

Certificates get accepted that a five-minute validity check would have challenged.

My subcontractors' applications get certified on guesswork

Nobody assesses them against the site's records inside the window.

We miss the notices we owe

The windows close before the paperwork exists, and the application becomes the notified sum.

No one list holds the deadlines

Every contract carries its own dates and they live in different heads.

Retention never comes back on its own

Releases fall due and nothing happens, job after job.

An application has come in with a figure that can't be right

Everyone agrees it's wrong, nobody serves the notice, and the wrong figure becomes the sum legally due.

They've served nothing, and we didn't know we could serve our own

No payment notice, no pay less notice, and a right sitting unused because nobody has ever drafted one.

We're owed money and the contract's remedy is sitting unused

Non-payment has a statutory answer most subcontractors never use, because nobody has drafted it.

We work the dates out by hand every cycle and check them twice

Every contract has its own dates, they live in a personal calendar, and nobody quite trusts the arithmetic.

Materials are on site and we're not being paid for them

Delivered, stored, at our risk, and outside the valuation.

Every subcontractor applies in a different format

Twelve spreadsheets a month, each one translated by hand before anything can be assessed.

December closes with notices still un-issued

The site shuts down, the dates don't, and January opens on positions nobody controlled.

The daywork sheets never come back signed

The work was done on daywork, and by the time it's valued nobody will confirm the hours.

We're paying against photographs we can't verify

Progress shots, materials-on-site shots, a schedule of items marked complete, and no independent record to check any of it against.

We never charge the interest we're entitled to

Late payment carries a statutory rate and a fixed recovery sum, and almost nobody calculates either.

The subcontract ledger is a job on its own

Applications, notices, contra-charges, retention and closing accounts across thirty subcontractors, landing on whoever has a spare hour.

Payment Application Assembly & Issuance

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I assemble and issue your payment application every cycle, built from the records and priced to be certified, with the materials claimed properly and every fixed sum invoiced and tracked until it lands.

Payment & Pay Less Notice Checking & Response

Risk mitigationFixed FeeOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I check every payment notice, pay less notice and certificate that lands against the contract and your application, and tell you what to accept, what to query and what to say.

Payment Assessment & Checking

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main Contractors & Clients

I assess each payment application that lands on you against the site's own records and hand you a certifiable number with its workings shown, inside the window your contract sets.

Payment & Pay Less Notice Assembly & Issuance

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main Contractors & Clients

I assemble every payment notice and pay less notice you owe, in each subcontract's required form with the reasons attached, ready for signature while its window is open.

Subcontractor Account Administration

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Main Contractors

I run your subcontractor accounts every cycle: applied, certified and paid reconciled on every account, the notices, contras and retention tracked, and anything exposed chased in writing.

Interim Valuations

Risk mitigationFixed FeeOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main Contractors

I value the works properly each period against the pricing document, with the measure recorded so this month's valuation never has to be re-argued next month.

Notice & Deadline Tracking

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors, Main Contractors & Clients

I put every notice and deadline your contract carries into one tracked register, and flag each one to a named person while there is still time to act.

Retention Tracking

Risk mitigationOngoingFor Subcontractors, Main Contractors & Clients

I keep a live register of the retention held on you and held by you under every contract, and act on each release the day its trigger lands.

Subcontractor Application Assessment Sheet

For Main Contractors

Their application on one side, your assessment on the other, and a written reason for every line where the two differ.

Invoice Register

For Subcontractors & Main Contractors

Every invoice out, with the final date for payment it belongs to, what came back against it, and how many days it is over.

Materials on Site Schedule

For Subcontractors & Main Contractors

What is on site, where it is, how it is protected and what it is worth, with the vesting certificate that transfers title once it is paid for.

Apply against the pricing document, not last month plus a bit

Attach the evidence to the line it proves

Claim the variations every month, priced or not

Keep the cumulative story straight

Read what the contract allows before you claim it

Keep the ticket with the claim, not in a pile

Do not claim off-site materials without the vesting pack

Chase the material off the books once it is fixed

Map every date once, then diarise them all

Submit the way the contract says, every time

Read every certificate the day it arrives

Answer every cut in writing, inside the cycle

Run every subcontract on its own dates

Assess from the site's records, not from the application

Serve the pay less notice even when the conversation was friendly

Document contra-charges the week they arise

Keep one register across every job, including the finished ones

Check the deduction every month it is made

Apply on the trigger, not on the anniversary

Chase the second half past the end of the job

What is the difference between a payment application and an invoice?

An invoice asks to be paid an agreed amount; an application asserts a valuation under the contract's payment machinery, and the machinery is what gives it teeth.

What if my contract runs on invoices rather than applications?

Then the invoice is the document that starts the payment clock, so it inherits all the discipline an application would carry: right form, right date, right references, tracked to its final date for payment.

What evidence should sit behind a payment application?

Enough for the assessor to certify each line without leaving their desk: measures against the pricing document, dated photos, tickets and the variation record, referenced line by line.

Can I claim for materials on site before they are fixed?

Usually yes, most contracts allow materials properly on site to be claimed before they are installed, but only within the clause's conditions and only with the delivery evidence attached.

Can I claim for materials stored off site?

Sometimes, but only where the contract expressly allows it and only when ownership, identification, separation and insurance can all be proved, because off-site materials are exactly what gets tested.

How do I check a payment certificate is right?

Check the notice before the number: was it in time, in form, with the basis stated; then reconcile it line by line against your application and answer the cuts in writing.

Small amounts get shaved off every certificate. Is that just normal?

It is common, but it is not neutral: unanswered small cuts compound into the account's biggest number and read later as agreement, so each one deserves a short written answer.

What actually happens if I miss an application date?

Usually you wait a full cycle for money you needed this one; on some contracts the window matters so much that a late application counts for nothing at all.

How should I assess a subcontractor's application?

Value what is actually there, from the site's own records, state your reasons for every difference, and serve the notices that make your assessment lawful, in their windows.

Which notices do I owe my subcontractors each month?

Normally a payment notice against each application, stating the sum you will pay and its basis, and a pay less notice by its own later deadline if you mean to pay less; miss both and the application's own sum falls due in full.

When do retention releases actually fall due?

Usually half on practical completion and the rest after defects are made good, but the triggers are events needing certificates, and in practice nothing moves until you apply.

What does a retained QS actually do for me each month?

The commercial cycle, run to the contract: the application in on its date, the notices checked and answered, the deadlines watched, the registers current, reported briefly each month.